Savvy Returns! I'm still adjusting to the Leafs' win...

Per Boston.com, not only will Marc Savard be making his triumphant return to the lineup tonight against the Blues, but Byron Bitz will also be making the shift to the top line, playing with Savvy and Milan Lucic.

God this sounds so familiar... where have I heard this before?

Seriously. This never gets old.

This is also a pretty great quote from the article, if you didn't bother clicking the link:

In the minutes leading up to practice, the players didn’t know what their assignments would be as they sat at their lockers, the suspense ending when one of the trainers finally handed out the color-coded sweaters, with Sturm, Savard, and Bitz all handed first-line whites.

"Yeah, Claude took his time deciding," said Savard, not noting that Julien actually sought his input in the decision. "And when the boys saw Bitzy got a white jersey, a little roar went up in the room. Hey, that’s nice, he deserves it."

 Aww. And props to Sav for nudging coach in the direction of moving Bitzy up. This should be a great game.

The Leafs beat the 1st place Capitals
Listen, this game was 10 kinds of awesome for a lot of reasons for me. I'm unfortunate enough to live in the DC area, so HNIC was actually blacked out for my viewing displeasure. I was about 15 kinds of pissed off. I hate the Caps. And while their broadcasters are quite entertaining (I love that Locker referred to Kessel as "Phil the Thrill" about 27 times), I hate the Caps.

Mid-way through the first, I was a bit surprised to realise it was so quiet in the ACC that it rivaled Philips Arena in Atlanta for silence. Then I further realised, most everyone in the stands was probably doing the same thing I was - holding their collective breaths in fear of breaking the spell that seemed to have captivated the Leafs, and returned skill to their game.

Now I feel it's my duty to add at this point that earlier in the day on Saturday, I'd given myself a Leafs manicure - blue nails with white tips. My manicures are magic. And the Leafs won. Clearly it's all about me. And my nails.

Additionally, I enjoyed the HELL out of the rally helmets for the shootout. I don't know for certain if he was the first to start the tradition, but as far as I know Marc Savard got the rally helmet tradition started in Atlanta in .... 2006?

 
I loved seeing it in the ACC.

Win. Epic, epic win. Let's see if the boys can do it again tonight against Johnny Tavares and his Islanders. It's for sure a media circus in the GTA today.

In totally unrelated news, I'm 204 unique views away from 25,000 visitors. It took about three years to get there, but I want to thank everyone who's visited over the past three years. Including those who found me searching for "does Mike Komisarek have a girlfriend?," "why the fuck isn't versus on my directv?," "new fire wagon designs," "luke schenn shirts," and "hockey cliches." I've gotten hits from all over the world - India, China, Australia, Finland, Canada, South Africa, England, Russia. I've gotten visits from US Federal and State, and Canadian government employees, from players, from Google alerts, and myriad other people, places and things. Thanks you guys. Sincerely. You fucking rock my world. GLOVE BUMP!